LIV Golf is hiring Scott O’Neil, former CEO of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils, to replace Greg Norman in running the Saudi-backed rival league about to enter its fourth season, The Athletic reported Wednesday.
Sports Business Journal reported last month that the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia planned to shift Norman into a new position. Norman has been CEO since LIV Golf launched as a rival league in 2022.
The Athletic cited an anonymous source briefed on the matter saying that O’Neil, who currently is CEO of Merlin Entertainments, would be hired.
Merlin Entertainments, with holdings that include Legoland and the Peppa Pig theme park in Dallas, announced Wednesday that O’Neil was leaving for another opportunity.
O’Neil takes over as PGA Tour Enterprises is negotiating with PIF over becoming a minority investor, a critical deal in helping to repair a golf landscape that has been divided since Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka were among top players who bolted the PGA Tour for a new league that offered team competition, signing bonuses and $20 million purses.
The PGA Tour, European tour and PIF announced an agreement on June 6, 2023, and set a deadline to finalize it by the end of 2023. That was not met, and the PGA Tour since has brought on Strategic Sports Group with its $1.5 billion investment (which could double in size) and the first equity ownership for players.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor and backbone of LIV, played together in the Dunhill Links last month. Monahan recently played golf with President-elect Donald Trump, who is close with Al-Rumayyan and whose golf courses were used by LIV Golf.
The hiring of O’Neil might soothe hard feelings toward Norman by most PGA Tour players. Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy said two years ago — before the PGA Tour and PIF announced a framework agreement — that Norman needed to leave before the sides could come together.
LIV still does not have a network television contract — it was broadcast primarily by The CW — and it has shifted more toward an international schedule for 2025.
Of the 10 events already announced, only three are in the U.S. — the first one is two weeks after the U.S. Open in June, and the last two are the same weeks as the PGA Tour’s opening two FedEx Cup playoff events.
O’Neil was CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the 76ers and Devils. During his eight years, he oversaw construction projects and oversaw the merger of holdings between owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer.
